Passing File Descriptors Over The X Protocol Socket

Keith Packard has been working on support for passing file descriptors over the X protocol socket as part of the work of DRI-Next, a.k.a. the "DRI3" undertaking.

Passing of file descriptors over the X protocol socket is needed if using the DMA-BUF interfaces for passing DRI objects between the client and server, which is one of the main features of DRI-Next/DRI3. The DRI3 implementation details are outlined in this article.

Keith Packard has outlined his FD passing adventures on his blog. Next on his agenda for updating the Direct Rendering Infrastructure is creating a simple FD passing extension that works for passing descriptors back and forth to the X Server. Once that is done, the rest of "DRI-Next" should come together in a straightforward manner.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.